MEDIA RELEASE
Eastern Cape contractors welcome SANRAL’s Contractor Development Programme
29 October 2024 – Black contractors in East London and Mthatha have commended the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) on its new Contractor Development Programme (CDP), designed to develop and grow grade 5 to 9 CE contractors.
SANRAL presented its new Contractor Development Programme to contractors and other stakeholders at consultative sessions held on 28 and 29 October in East London and Mthatha respectively. This formed part of a countrywide roadshow taking place between 21 October and 7 November 2024 to introduce the CDP to affected stakeholders.
Ms Lehlohonolo Memeza, SANRAL’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, said: “SANRAL has identified a need to create a platform for the development of emerging contractors to enable them to compete with the established players that have dominated the sector and capitalised on the roads agency’s projects over the years.”
SANRAL is implementing the three- to five-year CDP to increase the capacity, equity ownership, sustainability and quality of work produced by grade 5 to 9 CE contractors.
registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), as well as to improve their performance.
“We want to make sure that when you leave the programme you are able to bid for other work within and outside of SANRAL and that your quality of work is of a superior standard. We want to ensure that you emerge with sound financial management tools to reinvest in your company as it scales upward,” added Memeza.
Memeza said the CDP sessions in the Eastern Cape sessions had been very engaging, which demonstrated the eagerness of contractors and black industrialists to participate in the programme and showed that they were invested in its success.
Through the Contractor Development Programme, SANRAL will create a unique platform for CIDB grades 5 to 7 to maximise participation in its projects. SANRAL will provide skills development, training, mentorship and financial support to address the challenge of ‘the missing middle’ CIDB grades.
Mr Siphiwo Mxhosa, SANRAL’s Acting General Manager for Transformation and Stakeholder Relations, said: “We should not speak of transformation in theory. SANRAL is implementing various multi-billion rand projects in the Eastern Cape, including the upgrading of the N2 from KwaBhaca to eMaxesibeni valued at R1.2bn, the R56 from Matatiele to the KwaZulu-Natal border valued at R1.2bn, and the Msikaba and Mtentu mega bridges on the R23bn N2 Wild Coast Road project. These are massive projects which present huge opportunities for all contractors, big and small.”
Mr Mxhosa said SANRAL wanted to ensure that companies owned by previously marginalised groups – that is black (African, Coloured and Indian) people, black women, black youth, people with disabilities and military veterans – “become the main beneficiaries of our intensive road infrastructure build programme”.
He added that SANRAL’s approach was in line with the Public Procurement Act, which sought to enhance effective economic use of public resources in order to advance transformation and broaden economic participation.
Ms Memeza said the success of the Contractor Development Programme would largely depend on the funding to be provided to the targeted companies in the programme.
SANRAL would extend an interest free loan, paid in advance, of between 15% and 20% of the contract value to contractors. This was meant to assist with the working capital at the start of the projects.
The participating contractors graduate from the CDP after completion of developmental goals. These include:
?Successful completion of an NQF 5 or similar learnership;
?Upgrading of CIDB grade at least one level above from when they entered the programme;
?Having the required capital available from their current CIDB grading;
?The company is sufficiently staffed with experienced and competent individuals to graduate out of the programme.
Feedback from contractors in attendance included alleged fronting, which undermine SANRAL’s transformation efforts. SANRAL was urged to ensure that black-owned consulting companies were not left behind in the process, and was requested to review its requirements to enable participation by more black-owned accredited training service providers.
Industry stakeholders such as the CEO of the Amathole Economic Development Agency, Avuyile Xabadiya, said SANRAL’s Contractor Development Programme would assist in fast tracking local economic development goals in the region and that the agency would lend the necessary support to the CDP.
Ms Memeza said SANRAL would publish an expression of interest for interested contractors to make submissions, with the aim of appointing selected contractors to participate in the CDP by April 2025.
The closing date for comments and written submissions on SANRAL’s Contractor Development Programme is 7 November 2024. All written submissions can be sent to cdpbis@sanral.co.za
An audio clip with English sound is available here: Mr Siphiwo Mxhosa at CDP Mthatha.m4a //ENDS
Issued by FTI Consulting on behalf of SANRAL. For editorial content or additional information contact: Lwando Mahlasela on 082 440 5305 or pressoffice@nra.co.za